Staten Island's last link to Sedutto's ice cream severed

Sedutto's ice cream and Staten Island were perfect together. But no more.

When the Sedutto's at the corner of New Dorp Lane and Clawson Avenue closed up shop on Monday, a legacy stretching back 75 years simply melted away.

The store, Sedutto's last outpost on the Island, had become a burden, said owner Charlie Kim, who bought the business about four years ago.

"I'm so tired. I'm so, so tired," he said.

The Sedutto Ice Cream Co., founded in 1922, established its Island roots in the 1930s, relocating from Manhattan to Port Richmond.

According to Island businessman and restaurateur Mike Moudatsos, who owns the New Dorp property with his wife, Cathy, the corner location had been the site of a Sedutto's ice cream parlor for about 60 years.

Originally owned by the family that gave its name to the ice cream, the business was sold in 1969 to Susan and Alfred Amplo, said Mrs. Moudatsos, who owns The Luggage Shop Executive Gift Center, also on New Dorp Lane. Following her husband's death in 1979, Mrs. Amplo sold the ice cream parlor to the Moudatsoses.

Nineteen years later, the store changed hands again, this time acquired by B&G Corp., who sold it to Kim in 2004, Mrs. Moudatsos said.

The operation, which required 15-hour workdays, seven days a week, wasn't producing enough of an income year-round to justify staffing, Kim said.

About a year ago, Kim attempted to perk up sales by adding deli items, such as Boars' Head products and fresh bagels, to the ice cream parlor's offerings. But the nephew he was depending on to man the counters unexpectedly returned to his native Korea after working only a month at the store.

There does seem to be a glimmer of hope, however. Leo Glynn, a principal in Big Apple Dairy Desserts, which acquired Sedutto's in 2006, expressed surprise at the shuttering of the New Dorp store.

"We just completed a .¤.¤. review to ensure that the [Sedutto's] formula is actually what it was always supposed to be," said Glynn, adding that his company plans to spend the next few months focusing on development of the brand.